Cornish fans were gutted when Truro teenager Benji Matthews was booted off the X Factor last week but hundreds have been speculating that he could still make a comeback.

The giggly 17-year-old appeared in front of millions of viewers on Sunday night (October 15) with an original song he wrote for his grandparents that Simon Cowell later slammed as "corny" and "sloppy".

During the six chair challenge, Benji impressed judges Louis Walsh and Sharron Osbourne, who told him "you are my number one boy".

Speaking to Cornwall Live, Benji said the six chair challenge was "brutal".

As the show aired last week, hundreds of heart-broken fans started sharing different theories of how the star might still make a comeback.

We put this question to Benji in an interview earlier today and couldn't help but notice he appeared slightly cagey.

Perhaps there is hope yet...

He said: "Um well what can I say. I'm very humbled by the response."

Benji continued: "Whether I will be back or not I don't know. I really don't know how I'd feel if I went back in."

Benji Matthews (Image: Syco/Thames)

Despite having a powerful voice now, Benji couldn’t speak until he was four-and-a-half-years-old after battling meningitis as a baby.

Benji was only three months old when he contracted the deadly disease and said that he “technically died” trying to fight it off.

“When I was a baby I did have meningitis,” he said.

“I don’t remember any of it of course.

“I actually died, obviously I was resuscitated. I don’t remember it, but it’s always cool to tell people that I’ve died before.”

Although he managed to survive the illness, it left a lasting effect on Benji.

Truro singer and student Benji Matthews

He said: “After I got better, I couldn’t talk until I was about four and a half.”

When he did start to communicate, he said that people weren’t able to properly understand him until he was around six years old.

Through the struggle to communicate, he built up an early connection with music, using it to help express himself.

But it wasn’t until musical legend Whitney Houston died in 2012, that he discovered his true passion and talent for singing.

Benji said: “I think I started taking it more seriously after Whitney Houston died. I had just seen the Bodyguard film, I sung the theme tune at my old youth group and I got a standing ovation. It was pretty magic actually and that inspired me to keep going.”

At just 12 years old the youngster applied to Truro and Penwith College in the hopes of being able to study a BTEC diploma in Music Technology.

He was granted the place and became the youngest person in England to take the course.

Since then, in between college work and socialising, the teenager has continued to flex his vocal chords singing at gigs around Cornwall.